SELLOUT?
I hereby cease my mocking of endless bloody spinoffs from creations like
Terry Pratchett's Discworld ... since I've just been correcting the
proofs of my 'own' The Unseen University Challenge: A Discworld
Quizbook (Gollancz, real soon now). And – as Kingsley Amis once
remarked while deftly leaping aboard the James Bond bandwagon – jolly
good luck to me.

Arthur
C. Clarke's latest has a gracious Foreword explaining that
readers should be told exactly what they're buying here: a novel wholly
written by the late Mike McQuay, based on a 2 ½ pp Clarke movie
outline (also included). This foreword made little impression on whoever
designed Gollancz's jacket for Richter 10 by ARTHUR C.
CLARKE and Mike McQuay....

Neil
Gaiman is temporarily back in England and wearing his TV
scriptwriter hat : 'Spent today at the Neverwhere offices, near
Tower Bridge, doing casting – fascinating; walked away with the "pink"
scripts, which have me terrified. I keep opening them and finding
phrases like "SCENE 19 – Deleted", which I know I never
wrote. This weekend I'm going to have to fill the same sort of rôle
a plastic surgeon would after a mad axe-wielding thug had done his
worst.  Except that the producer and director aren't mad thugs,
just people with a practical idea of what we can do in 30 minutes, on
time and within our budget.  Also looked around the Freemasons
Hall in Holborn, some rooms of which will be doubling for the British
Museum (although we'll also be shooting in the Egyptian Room of the
museum).' Later: 'I'm starting to go, "I think I'll produce
and/or direct in future." More chance of what you do actually being
seen that way.' [12/13 Jan]

David
Garnett uncovered the horrid truth: 'It's 30 years since my
first dealings with publishers, so I thought it was about time I found
out what I was doing. Looking through a copy of Michael Legat's An
Author's Guide to Getting Published, I came to a section on the kind
of books which can't be published commercially: "poetry or science
fiction or treatises on unpronounceable compounds or a manual of Pig
Sticking, or even an account of your package holiday ..." It's
evident there's more to the decline of sf publishing than we realise – or are poetry and pig sticking and package holiday writing also
suffering because of all these interminable fantasy series which are
taking up so much shelf space?  New news on New Worlds
Real Soon Now!'

Simon
R. Green darkly adumbrates: 'I'm currently putting together a
TV series. Apparently there's a growing need among Brit TV to find a
British answer to The X-Files....'

Walter
M. Miller (1922-1996) died in January; reportedly he shot
himself while deeply depressed over illness and the recent death of his
wife. For a long time he had written nothing and been reclusive, but
some years ago contracted with Bantam to produce a sequel to his classic
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960); several hundred pages of this
were written, but Miller had been looking for a co-author to complete
it. He is still warmly remembered for Canticle and some strong
short stories, including the Hugo-winning 'The Darfsteller' (1955). Joe
Haldeman's fine personal memoir of Miller (written for Locus)
concludes: 'He lived nearly three quarters of this century; he produced
a novel and a few stories that secured him a place in our secluded
pantheon; he survived a lot of pain and finally had had enough.'

Charles
Platt has been visiting Japan, 'where translator Mikuru Abo
kindly arranged a dinner with about ten editorial staff from Hayakawa,
the primary publisher of serious science fiction in Tokyo. Incredibly,
Hayakawa's editors have somehow retained a true and pure fanlike passion
for science fiction and are untouched by the rot of cynicism afflicting
editors in New York who know all too well the disastrous commercial
consequences if they publish intelligent novels that they actually like
to read. I was even more amazed when my share of a lavish ten-course
Chinese feast was underwritten by the editors themselves. Imagine the
staff of, say, HarperCollins taking a writer (and his
girlfriend) to dinner and paying for the whole thing out of their own
pockets! I was almost moved to tears.  Everyone was extremely shy
and painfully sincere, and none of them knew what to make of my
tasteless business cards.  Overall, I was excited to discover that
devotion to literature still exists among editors in the 1990s, but I
was a bit depressed to have to fly 10,000 miles to find it.  PS.
None of the above should be construed to imply that the Hayakawans have
no sense of humour. In a recent issue of their magazine they reprinted
an article of mine describing my interest in cryonics and illustrated it
with cute little cartoons showing my severed head being gripped by metal
tongs and dunked in liquid nitrogen. The likeness was quite
accurate....'

Chris
Priest was boggled and delighted to find that he had indeed
won the £3,000 James Tait Black Memorial prize for his The
Prestige. The presentation was in Edinburgh on 26 Jan. (The
Scotsman was swift to praise this award as 'something of a surprise
choice' of 'a relatively little-known novelist'....)

Robert
Rankin, nameless spies inform us, has heard about the BSFA
Awards and dropped a subtle hint: 'As a British writer of Science
Fiction for the last sixteen years, who do you have to shag at your
place to get an award? Yours hopefully....'

Kaye
Webb, fondly remembered by a generation for her editorship of
the Penguin children's imprint Puffin (1961-79) and Puffin Post
magazine (1967-89), died on 16 Jan aged 81.

5-8 Apr  Evolution (Eastercon), Radisson Edwardian
Hotel, near Heathrow. Now £32/$48 reg (since Xmas). Contact 13
Lindfield Gdns, Hampstead, London, NW3 6PX. 'Anyone who hasn't booked a
room yet because they thought, poor saps, that it was soft old Pat
McMurray doing hotel, is in for the nasty shock of realizing that it is
Heartless Chris Bell and they are in Dead Deep Trouble.' [CB]

Random
Fandom. Mike Glicksohn was an eye-witness: 'Fans came
from as far away as Chicago, Toronto and Cincinnati for the 16 Dec
nuptials of Bob Shaw and Nancy Tucker in Ypsilanti. As only one close
friend (female) of Bob's had been able to fly over from England, I stood
up as Bob's best man at the high Episcopalian service. Bob was feeling
poorly but still leaned towards me when we knelt after communion and, as
the chalice was given to the bride, muttered "Actually, I'd prefer
a pint."' As of 21 Jan, Bob was still feeling grotty from the same
presumed bug; antibiotics had been prescribed. He and Nancy return to
England shortly. (Addendum: bad news.) 
Teddy Harvia invites us to Guess Who: 'I received a
pseudo-personalized letter yesterday from a science fiction writer
friend masquerading as a foreign service official at the American
Embassy in London pleading for Hugo nominations. I don't think I was
ever so blatant. Yes, I drew space aliens dreaming of rockets, but I
never had them beg.'  Steve Sneyd is at it yet again with
Flights from the Iron Moon, 128pp surveying sf poetry in 1980s
UK fanzines and small press: £2.50/$6 from 4 Nowell Pl, Almondbury,
nr Huddersfield, W. Yorks, HD5 8PB.

Publishers
& Sinners. John Brunner's obituaries aroused some new UK
reader interest, especially in Stand on Zanzibar; now intrepid,
risk-taking Arrow Books say they will 'consider' a SoZ reprint
provided they receive 3,000 or more firm orders placed through
bookshops.

TAFF
Wars. The 1996 campaign rages on: Simo relentlessly
raises his profile by smuggling naughtiness into SFX ('Michael
P. Kube-McDowell, author of the "Sim O'Fortaff" trilogy ...';
a riposte in #9 credits this trilogy to Martin Tudor, with titles No
Way, No Chance and Over My Dead Body) and offering
insider snippets: 'We here in the SFX office are as mystified as
anybody as to why David Pringle's interview with J.G. Ballard in our Feb
issue completely ignores the subject of books and instead concentrates
on JGB's enormous cinematic career, which consists of: (a) story
treatment for When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth; (b) source
material for Empire of the Sun; (c) source material for Crash,
and that old double act (d) er, and (e) that's it.... The makers of Gerry
Anderson's Space Precinct are describing as "outrageous"
rumours that they are planning to sack the series' producer, a Mr G.
Anderson.'  Rival candidate Martin Tudor has meanwhile
been invoking Jungian synchronicity by applying for an IT job at the
Training for All Foundation, or T.A.F....  Recent e-mail TAFF
debates (not concerning any virtue or defect of these mere actual
candidates) have vanished into white-hot realms beyond sense, with
neither 'side' having a monopoly of daftness. Even my attempt at
soothing noises last issue was subtly characterized by one fan as
'pouring gasoline'. A summary may follow when the dust settles. 
DUFF: I'll copy ballots on request for Brits interested in the
1996 Australia-USA race (Dedman, Heap, Middlemiss).

Outraged
Letters.David Gemmell disagrees with Spy X's opinion
(A100) that one of his 'Alexander the Great' books was better in
the original MS than after Legend editorial input had allegedly bumped
up the fantasy content. 'The MS for Lion of Macedon was edited
by Liza Reeves, who – as always – much improved it. The sequel, Dark
Prince, was edited by Deborah Beale. I have been extremely lucky
with all my editors, and not once has undue pressure been brought to
bear on me. Yes, there will be times when an editor feels more – or
sometimes less – fantasy elements should be dealt with, but even in my
earliest days no one insisted on any revisions.... Back in the
late 80s when I informed Random that I was intending to write a fantasy
Western they told me they didn't think it would sell, as the market for
any kind of Western was dead. But they added, "If that's what you
want to do, go for it!" When Wolf in Shadow was published
Random threw their marketing muscle behind it and it is still in print
today.'

Maison
d'Ailleurs: January saw floods of paper and e-mail petition
forms about this unique sf museum, the 'House of Elsewhere' in
Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, whose funding faced a 70% cut by the
local town council. The petition deadline was 26 Jan ... but donations
would surely be welcomed by the museum's 'Amis' group (like unto the UK
Friends of Foundation): AMDA, case postale 3181, CH-1401
Yverdon-les-Bains.

R.I.P.Burne Hogarth, celebrated Tarzan cartoonist and founder of the
US School of Visual Arts, died on 28 Jan aged 84 – in France, after
being GoH at the International Comic Art Festival.  Jerry
Siegel (b.1914), co-creator of Superman, reportedly died on
29 Jan. [RH]

Fanzine
Activity Achievement Awards will be presented at Corflu
(fanzine fans' convention, Nashville, Tennessee, 13-15 Mar). 'If you are
a fanzine fan and would like to participate please list your top three
votes in each category – Best Fanzine, Best Fan Writer and Best Fan
Artist – for the calendar year 1995. Send your vote to Janice Murray,
PO Box 75684, Seattle, Washington 98125-0684, USA. Deadline: 29 Feb.
Since E-mail votes will be tallied as well as votes received by mail,
there will be no official ballot. A postcard is sufficient. All votes
must be accompained by a name and mailing address.' [JM]

Thog's
Masterclass. 'He glanced fleetingly down, with a prick of
lust, at her shapely legs.' (Peter James, Alchemist) [S] 
'Ruben's left eyebrow twitched upwards, forcing a grunt past the plug of
mince and potato that sounded vaguely impressed.' (Alex Stewart,
'Yesterday', in Beyond; may be partially deciphered by the
understanding that the character is eating shepherd's pie.) [DVB]

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Thots.
Rather than blitz electronic subscribers every month with this
erratically (i.e. hardly at all) maintained list, I'm inclined to tidy
the web addresses away into a 'links' page at the website – while
keeping e-mail addresses here for people without WWW access. Good idea?
Tell me if not. DRL.

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